The introduction of new CASs results in a multiplication of the number of different systems in the airspace. And this is not without consequences. During ACAS Xa integration tests, though the coordination was working perfectly, it was noted that the performances of TCAS were degraded. This highlighted the fact that CASs need not only to be able to coordinate but they also need to be interoperable.
A comparison between ACAS Xu and DAIDALUS has been recently performed by the NASA. Their results show some discrepancies between the two methods and some unexpected behaviors from ACAS Xu and DAIDALUS.
A recent report, from the John A. Volpe National Transportation Center, prepared for the FAA, presents an analysis of 220 reports of the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) related to UAVs. The ones filled by Air Traffic Control Operators (ATCOs) are of particular interest as they are crucial players for the integration of UAS in controlled airspaces.
On top of different statistics concerning the events, the report puts forward seven events particularly surprising for ATCOs:
When reading this report, keep in mind that most of these encounters imply military UAS pilots, which explains the high number of remote pilots disregarding ATC instructions.
This type of study is very useful when designing Real Time Simulations with ATCOs in the loop. Indeed, it allows creating worst case scenarios to experiment with ATCOs workload while representing realistic scenarios.
The EASA recently released some results from the « Drone Collision » task force. The goal of this study was to assess the potential risk to aircraft posed by drones of different sizes flying at different levels.